2005 16 year old Ledaig cask #1900201 57.4% ABV (Murray McDavid).

Smoky single malt from the Isle of Mull – yes, it’s another excellent Ledaig from the Tobermory Distillery! This expression was distilled in 2005 and initially aged in a bourbon hogshead before being moved over to a first-fill rum cask from the Diamond Distillery in Guyana for a finishing period. Eventually, the whisky was bottled up by Murray McDavid as part of the Benchmark series.

Master of Malt

Appearance

Another light gold dram, damp straw coloured, the medium thick swirl line beads up straight away, and drops slow medium thick lags. #forpeatssake

Nose

Plenty of peat here, a little medicinal, oily, there’s an almost ketchup aroma here too. Menthol comes through, germoline as time goes by, and I agree with @derekcuster with digestives, cereals #forpeatssake

Dram 2! It’s a 2005 16 year old Ledaig, by Murray McDavid cask 1900201. Finished in a diamond rum cask.
Nose:
Bubble gum, Bakewell Tarts, Butter, popcorn and a light rubber smoke. Peaches, and an empty raisin box!#ForPeatsSake pic.twitter.com/xSPHiWYb2g

— WhiskyWings 🥃🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇺🇦 (@WhiskyWings) January 7, 2023

More time and it’s becoming pastry sweet with that peat, vanilla crowns, seared pineapple, then tree bark, and damp leaf litter atm. #forpeatssake

Palate

Quite a spice/oil/peat dram at the moment for me. Mouthfeel is pretty good, old style glazing putty, rum and raisin, dark fruits like sherry casks, pontefract cakes, then dried apricots. #forpeatssake

It’s becoming sweeter for me, the peat sits back a little allowing sweet fruits to come through more. Apricots and peaches, pomelo, juicy pineapple pieces. #forpeatssake

#forpeatssake the Ledaig palate is giving me smokey glazed BBQ pork and ribs, orange, papaya and pineapple. Warming spices and tobacco. It’s got ooomph at 57.4% abv

— Whiskytip – Duncan 🥃 (@whiskytip) January 7, 2023

Finish

Quite long for me, and looses none of its oomph, it keeps pushing on and on for me, the roof of my mouth is slightly anaesthetised. #forpeatssake

My thoughts

Of the three drams we sampled during this tasting, this was the one i was most looking forward to. A 16 year old independently bottled Ledaig from the Tobermory distillery on the isle of Mull, i was excited. With a peated whisky i am looking for what accompanies that peat, a glass of peated spirit with nothing else with it would probably be rather bland.

I was expecting a softer peated experience with this bottling, being 16 years old, ummm, wrong. Well there’s lots of peat available, and for me lots besides. Both the nose and palate range from fruitiness into darker heavier rum, and almost sherry cask notes at times, and sitting with it for a while it does sweeten up quite a lot.

Yes a very enjoyable dram for me, but one of my fellow tasters wasn’t impressed, he much preferred the Caol ila on the tasting, which was also very good. i’d love a bottle of this in my whisk(e)y cupboard, and i suspect it wouldn’t last too long.

A big thank you goes out to Duncan for sending this sample out for the tasting this review is a part of, and to Mike and Duncan for the use of their tweets in this review. They, as well as us, can be followed on twitter using the buttons below.